page_title: Comfort behaviour in animals
section_title: Wallowing
hierarchical_section_title: Comfort behaviour in animals / Types / Wallowing
caption_attribution_description: English: As happy as a pig in muck Pigs are clean animals. But they do like their mud baths, mainly to keep cool. They get sunburnt quite easily.
context_page_description: Comfort behaviours in animals are activities that help maintain the pelage, feathers, integuement or musculoskeletal system and increase the physical comfort of the animal.
  Comfort behaviours are performed from an early age and change little during development. Several comfort behaviours are associated with the beginning of a rest period, whereas others are associated with the end of a rest period, possibly to prepare the body for escape or hunting. Others, will be performed only when the appropriate internal and external stimuli are present. Animals generally perform comfort behaviours only when they are not engaged in essential activities; these behaviours are therefore sometimes categorised as luxury activities. However, animals can be highly motivated to perform some comfort behaviours, and conditions that thwart these behaviours are considered to have a negative influence on animal welfare.
context_section_description: Wallowing is characterized by the rolling or rubbing of an animal's body in mud or excrement, (feces or urine). The process of wallowing for red deer includes, kicking and pawing at mud, kneeling in the mud, and lying down and rolling in the mud. For red deer, wallowing has a strong social function as it instills a social hierarchy and creates group cohesion. The young deers are integrated into the group through competition. The young deer initiates wallowing which attracts the dominant deer. It is here that competition is observed and integration of the young into the group occurs. Wallowing also occurs before group activity to help promote group cohesion and common activity synchronizes. In pigs, another function of wallowing is presented, thermoregulation. When presented with increased temperature and humidity, pigs will wallow to regulate their body temperature.
caption: A pig wallowing in mud.
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